Football

Football Visits MIT Saturday

Sept. 30, 2009

NORTH DARTMOUTH, MA-Two teams each looking for their first victories of the season will meet when the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth's football team visits MIT in a New England Football Conference Boyd Division game Saturday afternoon. Kickoff is set for 1:00 p.m. at the Engineers' new Field Turf facility, Roberts Field at Steinbrenner Stadium.

The Corsairs are coming off a 34-0 loss to Plymouth State, while MIT fell at Nichols last week, 31-19. "MIT is kind of a similar team to us," said UMass Dartmouth. "They're a young team, they haven't won a game, and they're a young team with a new head coach. They have a new offense and a new defense."

MIT is led by running back DeRon Brown, a pre-season All-American who ranks seventh in the NEFC in rushing, averaging 118.7 yards per game. "DeRon Brown is a tremendous running back," said Robichaud. "He is very dangerous both running and catching the ball. Their quarterback, Kyle Johnson, runs well and throws the ball well. We need to focus on stopping DeRon Brown and the rest of their offense."

The Corsairs will try to stop an offense that has averaged in excess of 20 points per game in their three games this season. "They are running the spread offense, and running a lot of things out of the shotgun," said Robichaud. "They are trying to get the ball in DeRon Brown's hands as often as they can, and is many different ways as possible. They've been struggling a little bit defensively, and hopefully, we can take advantage of that."

UMass Dartmouth will be looking for their biggest offensive output of the season. "We need to be more productive," said Robichaud. "We need to finish drives, and score more points than we've been scoring. We have only scored 19 points in four games, and we need to score more points. We have to get the ball into the hands of our people who can make plays. Defensively, we cannot afford to give up big plays. Big plays continue to haunt us. We cannot afford to keep giving up big plays."

With both teams being short on experience, the Corsairs and the Engineers will both be looking to get off to good starts. "With a lot of young teams, the key is that the team that makes the fewest mistakes will win," said Robichaud. "It's been a big issue for us. We have to stop giving the ball away, we have to score when we have a chance to score, and we have to contain DeRon Brown and the rest of their offense in order to have a chance to be successful on Saturday."